All You Need to Know About the Phenomenon of the Sky

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As a society, we don’t look up enough to appreciate the stars and the moon. To most people’s surprise, the past couple of weeks there have been some important dates and rarities. Although it often goes unnoticed, here are some of the key things you need to know for the next time the Lyrid meteor shower, Blue Moon, and Pink Moon come around. 

Lyrids are active every year after a meteor drought and the shower occurs between April 16 to April 26. This year, the peak was the morning of the 26. Meteors may streak across the atmosphere at an average velocity of 30 miles per second and Jake Taylor, a high school student and solar system enthusiast, was grateful saying meteor showers are, “just asteroids flying through the sky thankfully most of them miss us”. Of course, these glowing rocks through the sky cannot be seen next to a bright moon or in a place with light pollution. Mr. Plawa, an astronomy teacher at Pennridge High School, spoke about a summer he spent in Hawaii, the most isolated place in the world. Without light pollution, he was able to see hundreds of meteors and even milky ways. This would certainly not be the case in small, suburban towns like Perkasie.

Unlike the yearly occurrence of Lyrid meteor showers, Blue Moons happen very rarely, hence the popular phrase ‘once in a Blue Moon’. The last one to occur was on March 31, 2018. The reason it is called a Blue Moon is that it’s the second full moon in one calendar month and this is rare because there are usually 29.5 days between full moons. Mr. Plawa has a problem with it being called blue because, “a lot of people are taught that it’s actually blue”, but this is not the case. Contrary to belief, they appear no different than other full moons.

To add to the confusion, the Super Pink Moon occurred on April 26th. It’s the first of the two supermoons to happen this year. Unlike the Blue Moon, Pink Moons are about 7 percent bigger and 15 percent brighter than a regular full moon, but side by side, the difference would be hard to notice. Unknown to Mr. Plawa, it is called a Pink Moon because, at the time it occurs, North America’s native wildflower, the Phlox Subulata, is blooming. My friend Gianna Ragomo and I went moon watching during this night to see what the hype was about. We basked in the moonlight for about an hour but noticed no real difference from a normal full moon. Unfortunately, it was not pink.